State for relaxation of population norms

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government told the Assembly on Wednesday  it would request the Centre to relax population norms for districts not covered under Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Replying to demand discussion of his Department, Rural Development Minister Bikram Arukh said the Centre had relaxed the population norms to 250 for the 18 IAP districts, including the three recently identified as Naxal-affected. Samir Das, BJD, said many habitations having population of less than 500 and more than 250 are waiting for all-weather connectivity in the non-IAP districts. He sought to know from the minister as to when these habitations will be covered under PMGSY. The Minister said the population norms for providing connectivity under PMGSY are decided by the Ministry of Rural Development. He promised that the State Government would certainly take up the matter with the Centre. The Centre has approved 9,184 road projects with an estimated cost of ` 12,741 crore since the inception of PMGSY in 2000-01. While ` 8,981 crore had been sanctioned, the State Government utilised ` 8,342 crore on construction of 5,871 rural roads. The total length of the road completed is over 22,487 km. The Minister further said the Centre had sanctioned ` 2,001 crore for 1,283 road projects in the IAP districts in 2011-12, while the Asian Development Bank  sanctioned ` 472.75 crore for 284 projects for the non-IAP districts. The State has utilised ` 1,045 crore and constructed roads of more than 2,574-km length by the end of February. Apart from NABARD assistance under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for construction of roads and bridges, the State Government had launched Biju Setu Yojana to provide all-weather connectivity to areas which mostly remain cut off during rainy season. It has been targeted to construct 400 rural bridges by 2013-14. The Minister said the Government had made a budgetary provision of ` 80 crore for maintenance of the rural roads. For the first time ` 55 crore additional Central assistance has been provided in the budget for construction of roads linking important tourist spots. Initiating the debate, leader of the BJP Legislature Party KV Singhdeo sought to know the reason for inordinate delay in the construction of bridges on the Suktel river. Amar Satpathy, NCP, underscored the need for restructuring of the engineering cadre of Rural Development Department.